A ruling was due to be made today regarding the nomination paper of St Lawrence candidate Sarah Westwater following concerns that the party declaration section of the form was not properly completed before being signed by her proposer and seconders.
Ms Westwater said that each of her nominators were fully aware of her party allegiance before signing the form.
It comes a week after St Brelade Constable candidate Marilyn Carré withdrew from the election after similar concerns were raised about her form.
Reform Jersey member Deputy Montfort Tadier, who is seeking re-election in St Brelade No 2, took to Twitter to criticise the process and suggested that there were likely to be a number of other candidates who have not completed their forms correctly.
He wrote: ‘Are all nomination papers going to be checked for ‘discrepancies’ or just @ReformJersey’s? Doubtless lots of independents were filled in incorrectly too. The #JerseyWay prevails again.’
Judicial Greffier Paul Matthews said that each candidate was responsible for filling out their forms and added: ‘The parishes encourage candidates to provide the forms to them so they can check them.
‘The issue with the Reform Jersey cases is the law says the form has a section for political party declaration that has to be completed before the proposer and nine seconders sign it.
‘Somebody may be prepared to support you if you are an individual but if you are part of a political party you have got to state that on your form so that when the proposers and seconders endorse you they do so knowing you are a member of a party.
‘Independent candidates do not have to fill that section. The last thing we want is for an election to go ahead and there to be a challenge afterwards.’
